Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, also known as Tony Hawk's Skateboarding in PAL regions, is a skateboarding game developed by Neversoft and released by Activision in 1999 and 2000. Originally released for the Playstation in 1999, several ports followed for the Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, and Nokia N-Gage. Natsume also developed an adaption for the Game Boy Color. The game, with the exception of the Game Boy Color version was praised by critics, for the innovative gameplay, level designs, and control scheme. Gameplay The goal of the game is to successfully perform and combine grinds, aerials, and flips with successful landings, which add to the player's score. The point value of the trick is based on time maintained, degrees rotated, number of tricks performed in sequence, and the amount of times the tricks have been used (the more often a trick is used, the less it's worth). In "Career Mode", the player has five tapes to obtain in six of the nine levels. The player is given two minutes to obtain as many tapes as they can. It is not needed for the player to get every single tape in one run, as the objectives are marked off as they are cleared. In the six levels, two of the tapes are reaching a set high-score, one is to collect the letters S, K, A, T, and E in any order, another is to find a hidden tape in a secretive spot in the level, and the last one is to do something to five things (example being to break five crates). The other three levels are competitions, in which the player must try to beat other skater's scores (scored by three computer AI judges, in which the mean is given on a scale from one to ten), running for 3 rounds. At the end, the player is given a Gold, Silver, Bronze, or no medal, depending on their score. The player can also play the levels they have unlocked in the career mode in the"Single Session" mode, where the player's objective is to get the highest score possible in two minutes. Multiplayer modes also exist, playable between two people; "Graffiti", "Horse", and "Trick Attack". Soundtrack The following is the soundtrack from the American PS1 verion. Other versions may vary. 1. "The Dead Kennedys - Police Truck" 2. "The Ernies - Here and Now" 3. "Even Rude - Vilified" 4. ''"Goldfinger - Superman" ''5. "Primus - Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" 6. "Speedealer - Screamer" 7. "Speedealer - Nothing to Me" 8. "Suicidal Tendencies - Cyco Vision" 9. ''"The Suicide Machines - New Girl" 10. "Unsane - Committed" 11. "The Vandals - Euro-Barge" Levels There are six levels in-game, as well as three competition semi-levels. Warehouse (Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, CA) School (Miami, FL) Mall (New York, NY) Downtown (Minneapolis, MN) Downhill Jam (Phoenix, AZ) Streets (San Francisco, CA) Competition levels Skate Park (Chicago, IL) Burnside (Portland, OR) Area 51 (Rosewell, NM) Development In 1999, Activision signed Tony Hawk a deal to star in ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Mitch Lasky, senior vice president of Activision, stated in an interview with GameSpot that the character was meant "to reflect Tony's signature style – an intense mix of acrobatics and hard-core technical skating". Hawk himself was involved in the development of the game and his in-game persona, remarking that "had always wanted to help create a video game that represented the reality and excitement of professional skateboarding". Hawk, along with other skaters featured in the game, were motion-captured for the game, and voiced his character. Reception Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was well-recieved by most critics, scoring an outstanding 92 on Metacritic based on 18 reviews for the PS1 version. IGN gave the N64 version of the game a 9.1 out of 10 praising the gameplay for "genius control, combo system and design" despite little criticism with sound stating "the punk tracks are dumbed down and looped". They also gave the PlayStation version an outstanding rating (9.4 out of 10) again praising the gameplay and the graphics stating it is "simple but amazing in terms of animations, physics, and size of levels". Differences There are many differences between the three main versions; the PS1 version, the N64 version, and the Dreamcast version. • Each version has different sound effects. • The FMVs aren't present in the N64 version - instead, they're replaced with still images. The original PS1 version includes FMVs. However, the Dreamcast version has higher-quality FMVs (with the exception of the Activision logo, in which the quality was kept from the PS1 version), and also includes Crave and Treyarch FMVs at the start. • The N64 version uses low-quality versions of the music rendered on the actual N64 hardware, while the PS1 version uses the actual music. The Dreamcast version has higher-quality music and sound effects than the PS1 version. • When completing each run in the Dreamcast version, the character strikes a pose. This is not present in any other version. • The Dreamcast version has in-game advertising, advertising the brands that sponsored the game (and, also the co-publisher of the port itself, Crave). • The Dreamcast version automatically saves, while the N64 and PS1 version are saved manually. • The Dreamcast's VMU displayed the scores of tricks, as well as comments on the tricks.